Unsteady Ground
by Blueandgreen91
Summary: CLOUD 9 FANFIC. "She compared her fall to that of Will's two year previous. The only difference? He had no one to tell him everything was going to be okay, she had him."


Unsteady Ground

**A/N: Gah. I can't believe I'm writing a fanfiction for Cloud 9. Like I'm almost nineteen and I enjoyed this movie more than I should have. Maybe I liked Luke Benward and Dove Cameron's chemistry. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Here's the fanfiction. Enjoy.**

She watched him pace in front of her, the snow crunching slightly with each step. It was the only thing making noise as he paced. He was silently arguing each side of a decision but that didn't bring him any closer to making one.

"Will." She spoke, trying to catch his attention. "Will. Will!" She yelled, smiling when he finally stopped and turned towards her.

"What?" His irritation was lost with the look on her face.

Kayla moved, pushing herself up and smiled. "Let me just throw the trick, I'll be fine."

"And if you aren't?"

Kayla laughed, she was confident in her abilities since she landed the Cloud 9. "I will be." She felt cocky but it was deserved, she had landed a trick no one else had. "Besides a McTwist is easy compared to a Cloud 9."

"I worry okay?"

She laughed and pulled him close to her. "I know." Kayla smiled shyly and placed a small kiss on the corner of his lips before pulling down her googles and covering her mouth.

She had been working the trick all day and had the bruises to prove it. Her knee was aching from the most recent fall and she was almost 100 percent sure it was blood she was tasting after biting her tongue. But she was happy, she had landed the trick going on three times now. Just going for a fourth and she'd feel confident in her ability.

It wasn't that difficult of a trick, mainly, it was a front flip while twisting 540 degrees. Simple.

Or so she thought.

She hit the wall with just the amount of speed needed to complete the trick. Well. Maybe too much speed. Kayla was higher than expected and felt as if she more time to complete the trick.

Boy could she have been more wrong.

Kayla was halfway through the rotation when she ran out of time, landing solely on her right side. For a moment everything was silent. No one moved, not even Kayla. Her shoulder and knee protested her every movement and the pain in her head made everything fuzzy and muffled.

"Kayla!" A voice yelled, it was familiar but she couldn't think of the name. Everything felt slower like time was moving through molasses. "Kayla." The voice was closer, right in her ear this time. "Dink go get help, Sam help me get her snow board off."

She could feel them moving her ankles and she could see Dink, through lidded eyes, boarding past people in attempts to get some sort of help. Kayla tried to tell Will that she was okay, that he didn't have to panic like this but he was because she couldn't comfort him. She couldn't laugh at his upset face and convince him she could go again despite her body hurting.

But the harder she tried to talk, the more her vision blurred and faded and she found herself fighting to stay awake. "Kayla." His voice was distant and quiet. "Please say something."

She tried saying his name, she tried saying anything even _ow_ but nothing would escape her lips. Her head was swimming and the darkness was comforting.

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It had been three days since her fall that left her with a concussion, a sprained and bruised knee and an even more bruised ego. Kayla shifted when she heard the door open, her eyes slowly focusing in on the taller figure that was walking towards her. It was a mixture of sleep and confusion that washed over her as someone knelt down in front of them and smiled.

"Hey sleepy." Will's voice was quiet. He smelled like dog and snow and brought a smile to her face.

"Hi." She whispered, groaning into her pillow when her knee spiked pain.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he pushed the hair from her face. She shrugged and scooted over. Pulling the back the covers and patting the bed beside her, she gave him clues to climb in. "You sure?" He asked but it wasn't meant to be a question as he was already pushing off his shoes and climbing beside her. "Dink and Sam say 'hey.' So does mom."

"How are you?" Her voice was quiet like she had just spilled an important secret and hoped no one else could hear.

He smiled and scooted so close the bottom of her knee brace brushed up against his shin and sent rivers of chills throughout her body. "Happy." Kissing her nose, he rested their foreheads together. "How are you?"

"Sore." She mumbled. "I hate this."

"Hey." He spoke "at least you only have bed rest for a week, mine was six weeks because of my lung."

She laughed and kissed him gently before smiling shyly. "Sorry. I've just never gotten hurt before."

"You know what amazes me?" He changed the subject, trying to keep her focused on positive things. "The fact that even though you're injured, your pajamas match."

"Yeah." She mused with a small smirk. "Accessorizing comes natural, I told you." Kayla laughed, intertwining their fingers and pressing their lips together. His lips moved against hers slow and soft and when they finally pulled away, she was breathless and couldn't help but smile at him. "What's been going on at school?"

"Nothing really. Your friends are lost and confused. Nick and Skye had a very _very _public fight. It was very _very _interesting to say the least. Dink was able to draw Godzilla and Tokyo in math yesterday while taking somewhat legible notes and Sam well, Sam's just being Sam."

Trying to avoid a yawn, she buried her head into his shoulder but it found her anyways. She deeply inhaled the smell of dog and the faint smell of cologne before pulling away and finding Will staring intently at the corner of her room. "When did you get a TV in here?"

She laughed and shrugged. "Yesterday…" yawning again, she rested her head on his chest. "Dad… he uh, wanted to give me something… to do." Fighting sleep, she opened her eyes and lifted so her chin was on his chest.

"Kayla," He smiled running his fingers through her hair. "Go to sleep." Her head fell back into its spot. "I'll be here when you wake up."

That afternoon she had her first nightmare, jumping so high she startled him awake. She had dreamed of the crash on Tyson's peak. Except she wasn't the one who crashed. He was. And she wasn't there in time to save him, he was gone. Just like that and she couldn't do anything.

Kayla cried so hard into his shirt that she had soaked it completely through within just a few minutes. Her head was aching when she finally could breathe normal again but tiny tears still escaped her eyes as she sat up in his arms.

He didn't say anything, just pulled her close and with a mumbled "you're okay now" kissed the top of her head and rubbed her side until she felt content enough to fall back asleep.

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The nightmares progressed, getting rapidly worse and vivid to the point where she couldn't tell the difference between nightmare and reality. Often she would continue screaming after the nightmare was over because she believed she was still stuck in it.

The doctor said it was from the concussion.

Her parents agreed.

But Will didn't. He saw it another way. From the crashers' perspective.

It was the crash that frightened her, that made her have daily nightmares of crashing. It was the crash that was providing resistance in her getting better.

"C'mon Kayla. You'll be just fine." Will reminded as he clicked on the last strap to his board. He turned towards her with a small smile, one she couldn't say no to. "I'll be right next to you."

And that was how he got her to ride. By standing by her side and not letting go of her arms that gripped his ever so tightly. It was when he finally convinced her to try a small jump that everything they had worked went down the drain.

She lost control in the air. Something frightened her and Kayla came crashing down on the right knee. When Will finally got to her, she was crying out in pain, clutching that right knee.

…..

Nothing torn, nothing broken. Just more bruising.

Take a couple days to a week off and rest it.

"Forecast calls for a hundred percent chance of perfect riding conditions, you down?" But Will was too busy watching Kayla walk Donald like nothing was wrong. _She should be on crutches_, he thought, _if it was actually hurt. _

"Later." He pushed past both boys and around the corner where Kayla knelt alone next to Donald. Her right knee was bent as if nothing was wrong, as if the crash had never happened. "I thought your knee hurt." He called out watching her reaction as she stumbled into the standing position before lamely leaning against the bench for _support. _

"It felt better?" She spoke but it sounded as if she asked him a question. As if she didn't know what he wanted her to say.

"I'm not mad." He spoke looking down at her. "I know why you faked."

"I didn't fake."

"Uh huh, then did your knee really hurt?"

Kayla shrugged and sighed. "For like ten minutes but once we were down the mountain I felt fine."

"Then why lie?"

"I'm afraid okay." Her voice shook and Will immediately felt the guilt pile on his chest as she fell defeated onto the bench next to her. "I can't get rid of these nightmares and when I made that jump, all that fear, all that anxiety I felt in the dreams. It became real. I was in my nightmare."

Tears had fell down her face and Will wanted no more than to kiss them away. It was his fault. He didn't stop her from jumping, he let her jump when she wasn't ready. "Kayla. I… I'm sorry."

"It doesn't help. Nothing helps."

"What about this?" And without the slightest hesitation, he brought their lips together and refused to let them break apart until his lungs screamed for air. As he listened to her breathing, he brought his lips back to hers once more and moved them slowly and pulled away even slower. Will kissed between her brows then kissed each cheek until was dry from tears. "Better." He spoke, not asking the question but more like telling her she had to be better or he would help her until she was.

"C'mon. We can go get our boards and go slow."

"No."

"You're on unsteady ground. Let me help you."

"What?" He couldn't resist and brought his lips against hers. Once. Twice. Three times.

"It's like fresh powder on ice. It's looks fine and safe but one false move will send tumbling to the ground." He watched a smile push its way on her face despite her tries to push it away. Picking up Donald, she shook her head and walked away from him with a small limp to which Will couldn't tell if it was fake or not.

It was later that night when she had one of the worst nightmares in weeks. She woke up screaming and crying and called Will in hysterics, trying to explain how everything was wrong but she needed to get better. She _needed _to. She couldn't go on with these nightmares that plagued her until she lay awake staring at the emptiness of her room. Even then she drift into the small sense of comfort and a simple thought of snowboarding broke into her mind sending her on a rollercoaster of emotions. It confused her.

He promised her to help. He would stay right next to her until she could.

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It did help. Eventually.

It took a week for her to try and jump again but the more she trained, the more the sleepless nights faded away. With every jump she chased away the nightmares.

With the help of Will of course.

But it took more convincing to allow her to throw that trick again. Even then was he unsure but was overcome by snowballs and, in mercy, allowed her.

She landed just fine.

Kayla was finally on solid ground.

She compared her fall to that of Will's two year previous. The only difference? He had no one to tell him everything was going to be okay, she had him.

**Alright. I have never wrote a fanfiction like this before but once I started writing I really couldn't stop. I hope at least one person reads this, mainly because even my little sister refuses to read this and it kind of depresses me. Okay. Review and tell me what you think. I think after five or so reviews I'll put up another one shot of someone's choice. But it's a long shot to get so many reviews soooooooooo. Yeah. **


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